Wuthering Heights

By: Kayli Smith

Synopsis

The novel "Wuthering Heights" is a tale of a mysterious gypsy like a man by the name of Heathcliff. He was adopted and also is hated by his step brother. He gets treated like a servant. He ran away when the woman he fell in love with decided to marry another man,he than later returns rich, educated, and is set about gaining his revenge on the two families that he believed ruined his life.

Catherine (big) has been involved from the start of book till she died in the last chapter of the book. She was rude and stuck up the whole time. But near the end she seemed out of it when she was sick. She didn’t really act like herself when she was sick. She acted like a child wanting to see the snow.

“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

Heathcliff was nice and really loved Catherine (big) but she told him he wasn’t good enough. By the end of the story he was what she wanted but she was already married. So he tried to get back at Catherine (big), but he couldn’t.

“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed, and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!”

Catherine (little)- She came around the middle of the book and at the end they all talked about Catherine getting married to Hareton.

“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Healthcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.”

Theme

The two major themes of this story are love and revenge. Heathcliff sets out and tries to destroy the Linton family and what drives him is his love for Catherine. even when she dies, he moves forward on his path to perdition as he seeks to revenge himself on those who he feels oppose him and opposed his union with her. This is why he gains revenge on Hindley for the way in which he treated him when he was master of Wuthering Heights, and also the way in which he gains revenge on Edgar through the way in which he marries his sister and then forces his beloved daughter into a marriage with his son and tries to keep her from being with him when she dies.

"My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."

The Romantic Era of the nature in "Wuthering Heights" is not just tranquil and smiling moments but it also appears in its wild, stormy moods. Nature is a living and vitalizing force and gains a refuge from the constraints of civilization. Catherine and Heathcliff and their love obsession love for each other are the center of their being and death. The concern with identity and the creation of the self are a primary concern. Hareton is the noble savage and Heathcliff is also. The imagination is unleashed to explore extreme states of being and experiences

"Remembrance" was written in 1846 and "Wuthering Heights" was written in 1847, but by the same author, Emily Bronte.

Remembrance

by: Emily Bronte

Cold in the earth -- and the deep snow piled above thee,

Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!

Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,

Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?

Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover

Over the mountains, on that northern shore,

Resting their wings where heath and fern leaves cover

Thy noble heart forever, ever more?

Cold in the earth -- and fifteen wild Decembers,

From those brown hills, have melted into spring;

Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers

After such years of change and suffering!

Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,

While the world's tide is bearing me along;

Other desires and other hopes beset me,

Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!

No later light has lightened up my heaven,

No second morn has ever shone for me;

All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given,

All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.

But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,

And even Despair was powerless to destroy,

Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,

Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy.

Then did I check the tears of useless passion --

Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;

Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten

Down to that tomb already more than mine.

And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,

Dare not indulge in memory's rapturous pain;

Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,

How could I seek the empty world again?

This picture possesses an underlying tone of sadness. However, Wuthering Heights is strongly centered on the idea of children and childhood love. It is based on a love that is never unified, but yet never disappears and thus a sense of loss is portrayed. This same theme can be seen throughout this picture by Andrea Mantegna in 1502. Like this painting, Emily Bronte's writings show a profound sense of loss, betrayal, and mistrust, which she felt as a consequence of love.